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Ellsworth Kelly
Stele I, 1973

Artwork Info

Artwork title
Stele I
Artist name
Ellsworth Kelly
Date created
1973
Classification
sculpture
Medium
weathering steel
Dimensions
216 in. × 120 in. × 1 in. (548.64 cm × 304.8 cm × 2.54 cm)
Date acquired
1999
Credit
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and promised gift of Helen and Charles Schwab
Copyright
© Ellsworth Kelly
Permanent URL
https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/99.354
Artwork status
On view on floor 5 as part of the Rooftop Sculpture Garden installation

Audio Stories

How does this sculpture mark time?

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transcripts

GARY GARRELS:  

This is a major sculpture by Ellsworth Kelly. It’s titled Stele I. Stele is a Greek word. It simply means pillar.  

 

NARRATOR:  

Gary Garrels, Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture.  

 

GARRELS:  

 It is a large, monumental form. And that evokes the idea of some kind of marker, like a classical or nineteenth-century monument would recall some specific event, some historical event of importance. The choice of this material for the sculpture is very intentional. The material itself is something called Corten steel that develops its own patina. Once placed out in the environment, it creates a coating on the metal that stabilizes over time into this beautiful, deep, rusty brown color, which is quite rich and very earthy. It reflects some of the things that will happen to it in nature. So whether it might be the droppings of a bird or just some kind of irregularity in the way the wind, the water works on the surface, it takes on a character, a quality, of time passing. It is, in a way, almost like some kind of a mirrored form. But something that allows us to look inward, rather than outward. 

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